What is your experience with implants in dental school?
09:03 PM | Feb 21,2016
As implants become increasingly popular, the techniques and theory of implant dentistry is working its way into the UCSF curriculum more and more each year. Although for many patients implants may not be the best or most reasonable option due to finances, etc, implants are becoming more affordable and predictable. Therefore, it seems like a very necessary component of the dental school curriculum. As first and second years, we hardly do any formal training, however in third and fourth year, we have several rotations (Periodontics, Hospital Dentistry, Oral Surgery) all which involve assisting implant placement. As far as restoring implants, we are able to take on and treatment plan single tooth implants starting 3rd year. It's a great opportunity to make the most of the time we have in clinic and treat a wide range of patients. It's also very nice to have a prosthodontics specialty, where students can go see complex restorative implant cases which we would otherwise not be able to do as predoctoral students. The opportunities are endless, and although we may not physically be able to place many implants ourself, we have several gateways available to learning more about implant dentistry if it's of interest to the student.